THREAD: An article written by a Chinese businessman in India has gone viral on WeChat over the past two days, 100,000+ views (maximum reported amount so probably in the millions) and sent to me by half a dozen people.
It also happens to be full of incredible, nonsensical claims.
It also happens to be full of incredible, nonsensical claims.
It begins by saying why many Chinese businessmen wanted to leave their projects and return home but didn't because "Indians screw everything up. There's nothing Indians can't mess up". [er, why are you doing a project here then?]
He visits a hospital and finds its full of people with fever and coughing. A doctor tells him there are thousands of cases already but no one is worried enough to test because India's full of so many other diseases.
He claims India issued a new law in March requiring all information on the epidemic published my media to receive official authorisation. [Chinese journalist friends have asked me after reading this article if this is true. This isn't China, I said.]
He says Hindu-Muslim riots happen all the time [makes it sound like it's a daily occurrence] and that's what every Chinese living in India is afraid of. [Never heard this from any Chinese person I know living here.]
He says he was asked why he wouldn't be safe because "he lives in a rich area". His answer is amazing: He says its because "rich areas in India are next to slums because Indian rich people like to get up every day and look at the slums outside their window".
I'll stop with this most amazing claim: He says all the "rich areas" in India are guarded by private security that wield guns, guns are legal in India and it's only second to the US in gun-ownership.
Why, you may ask, am I highlighting a nonsensical piece?
Because this reflects what many Chinese believe -- perhaps like to believe -- about India, confirming their worst stereotypes.
Because how widely viral this piece has gone, perhaps among the most widely read in China.
Because this reflects what many Chinese believe -- perhaps like to believe -- about India, confirming their worst stereotypes.
Because how widely viral this piece has gone, perhaps among the most widely read in China.
